Especially in the field of biochemistry, there is a very extensive demand for chemical testing from the point of view of both quantitative and qualitative analysis pertaining to substances known to have relevance to possible malfunctioning of the biochemical processes of living mammals. The number of such tests of various types which are performed each year in the U.S. is extremely great and has been estimated to be in excess of over one billion per year. Since the number of such tests heavily taxes both equipment and personnel, proposals have been made for automatic or semi-automatic testing equipment and procedures.
For use in automated procedures a disposable reaction container made of a rigid or semi-rigid material is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,691,017. It is characterized primarily by comprising a windowed reaction chamber adapted for the transmission of light therethrough and an auxiliary chamber that is separated from the reaction chamber except for an opening that is small enough to prevent the substantial diffusion or flow of liquid when in a quiescent state from one chamber to the other but through which a solution of a reagent may be caused to flow so as to commingle with solution of another reagent in the reaction chamber and thereby trigger a reaction, the disposable reaction container as a whole being of such size and slide-like configuration as to lend itself to automated equipment. The reaction container disclosed in Pat. No. 3,691,017 comprises two planar halves which, when separated from each other, are adapted to receive one or more reagent-containing solutions and on which the solution or solutions can be reduced to solid form by lyophilization. The reaction container is completed and made ready for supply to purchasers by uniting the halves as by the employment of liquid-tight, frictionally interfitting securing means.